


Feel like a Fraud

by ChaosWriting



Category: Winx Club
Genre: (for Earth), AU, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Everyone Is Gay, Gender Dysphoria, Modern Era, Multi, Some Comic Elements, bloom says fuck, canon is a guideline, past transphobia, they say write what you know so i wrote a trans male character, trans male bloom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29289360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaosWriting/pseuds/ChaosWriting
Summary: Bloom tries to stay out of the spotlight, wearing mostly black to hide himself, only getting into fights when he has to defend himself (which is far too often), spending most of his time helping his mother in the shop, or sitting indoors sketching.With the break having begun and most of his classmates out of town he’ll be able to spend most of the summer in the park without being harassed.He didn’t expect to meet a girl who would lead him to a realm of magic, of fairies and witches and wizards.It certainly doesn’t hurt no one knows he’s trans. (It wouldn't be an issue if he wasn't the only male fairy.)
Relationships: Bloom & Stella (Winx Club)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 31
Collections: VMWARE





	1. An Unexpected Event

The park is quiet around these times, since every other, reasonable teenager is on vacation, and it’s too early for most other people to be up (thanks for waking me up, mom). So Bloom does the reasonable thing, and he sits down next to a tree, pulling his sketchbook out of his backpack and beginning to take his time, carefully sketching fantastic characters, dragons and fairies and witches and knights, which he all still enjoys despite being 16, which is too old for fairytales, probably. 

It is easy to lose yourself in your fantasies when reality is harsh, and you constantly get bullied for being yourself, also known as: Bloom is the weird kid. 

His parents are good about him being trans, supportive to the point of fault in fact, his dad calls him son all the time, and his mother will raise hell on anyone who insults her son in front of her. Bloom chews on the eraser of his pencil, wondering what kind of wings to give the person he’s drawing. A fairy knight, small and deadly, using a needle as a sword.

Kiko, a rabbit far too intelligent to be a normal rabbit, pulls at his sleeve, frantically gesturing deeper into the park. “Did you see a dog again?” He ruffles Kiko’s head, and shoves his sketchbook back in his backpack, swinging it over his shoulder. If anything, deeper in the park will be quieter, and less chance of running into someone he knows when it gets later. (Moving now means not moving later, he justifies it.)

Deeper into the park, he follows a bright flash of light, and the voice of a girl yelling “Rising Sun!”. It is followed closely by the noise of several small things hitting nearby trees. A LARPer? That’s all he can think of, but LARPing would explain the next thing he sees, a humongous, yellow beast of a being, growling at the girl, whose clothing seems more like a bikini, holding a staff.

He can’t hear her properly, and he isn’t one to judge by appearances, so he waits, his hands scavenge the grass for something heavy, and he finds a rock that lies well in his hand.

The roar of the beast makes the earth tremble, and Bloom is overcome by adrenaline, and rage, he wills himself to stay still, for now. When the beast has the scepter, and Bloom decides that, ok, things are exactly as they look, there is a big meanie, and apparently he has various minions around him, small red, imp-like creatures. So he pulls his arm back, and chucks the rock as hard as he can.

It misses the beast by a mile, but it hits one of the imps instead, making it vanish with a yelp and a poof. The yellow beast turns around to look at where the imp stood just earlier, and Bloom can’t help a quiet, but noticeable “What the fuck?" getting its attention.

“My Ghoul!” It growls. Ok, so, not imps. Bloom braces himself to speak, making his voice as deep as he can. “Leave her alone!” He yells, throwing another rock, at the giant, who is now standing up and towering over him, even from this distance. It bounces off harmlessly.

Bloom is used to being outmatched, being bullied verbally by girls, and every man he meets towering over him, even his peers, what matters is gaining the upper hand, even for a bit, to make sure they don’t try again. It’s been a while since he got into a physical fight, but words can still hurt, and he can still threaten. “I will guage your eyes out with a kitchen knife if you don’t fuck off.” He cracks his knuckles. He has no knife, but the threat stands.

The enemy freezes. So does the girl, actually, as Bloom steps out of hiding, like he is some kind of supervillain revealing himself, he chuckles at the thought. The fact that most of his clothes are black probably doesn’t help.

Bloom enters a fighting stance, at most he can buy the girl some time to get away. He cracks his knuckles again, a nervous tick. Half the battle is a good intimidation tactic.

The beast recovers from its shock (his shock? Bloom shouldn't assume, especially since it's not human and may have different gender norms and- focus Bloom).

"Ghoulies, attack!" They order, whilst pointing in Bloom's direction. "I'll take care of the girl." The beast turns around, and Bloom doesn't have time to react because the Ghoulies rush forward, scampering on all fours, reaching out.

They have numbers, but Bloom has size, he braces himself. The moment the first one reaches him, he kicks, throwing it across the clearing, hitting a tree, and vanishing into sparkles. Bloom grins. Maybe he should pick up football.

If the Ghoulies are scared they don't show it, only coming at him with more vigor. There aren't enough to overwhelm him, but they're more clever than they look. When Bloom tries to kick the fourth one he finds another Ghoul clinging to his pant leg, miscalculating how much force he needs for the kick and throwing off his balance, making him fall to the grassy ground. 

Bloom lets out a frustrated growl, rolling away from the fight quickly, and uses the distance to get up again without leaving an opening to attack. (The memory of someone kicking him in the ribs as he lies on the floor sits in the forefront of his mind.)

"Let go of me you stupid ogre!" The girl screams, and Bloom picks up the nearest Ghoulie, briefly thinking of how stupid the name is. It's a lot lighter than he expected, like a stuffed animal. It claws at his arm, barely damaging his jacket, desperate to find a hold. It doesn't find it, and Bloom throws it at the ogre, hard. This time, he doesn't miss, and the ogre screams as the claws of the ghoul find its way into the ogre's skin. Out of reflex he drops the scepter and the girl, who reaches out to grab her scepter. 

"Now, are you going to leave, or do I have to make you?" She says, forcing herself to stand up, pointing her weapon in the ogres direction. 

"We will meet again." The ogre says, and he claps his hands together, vanishing in a flash of harsh pink light, together with the Ghoulies.

"So," The girl turns to Bloom. "What is the name of my knight in shining armor?" She looks awfully pale, leaning on her scepter more than she should.

Bloom doesn't respond, at first, because she called him a knight and it doesn't fully register he is passing, then, because, well, she faints, that for one.

-

After trying to wake the girl up for far too long, and failing, Bloom does the most reasonable thing he can do, which isn’t to call the hospital, surprisingly, the phone dials the number. Quiet on the other end, waiting for Bloom to talk, but he doesn’t.

“Bloom?” His mom asks. “Are you alright? Did something happen?”

“I don’t know how to explain it.” Bloom says. “The short version is a girl got attacked in the park and I helped her out, she’s alright, but she fainted from exhaustion.”

And it should say something when his mom pauzes and asks “Are you sure you’re ok?”, but it doesn’t, to Bloom.

“I’m fine, from what I’ve seen I don’t think she’d like a hospital, so I was wondering if you could come pick us up with the car, since I can’t exactly carry her by myself.”

“Of course you can!” His mother reassures him. “You’re my strong handsome boy!” And Bloom flushes red.

“Mom!” He whispers, embarrassed.

“I’ve seen you carry bags of dirt like it was nothing, honey!”

“No- I-” He loves her, but she can be a little dense. “A teenage boy carrying an unconscious girl would not look safe, mom.”

“I’ll be there in 15.” His mom says. “I love you.”

“I love you too, mom.”

The adrenaline is wearing off and Bloom feels a sting on his leg. Part of his pant leg has been torn, some of the fabric missing, and there are claw marks where the Ghoulie tore the fabric off. He hadn’t even noticed.

-

The girl ends up being conscious long enough to give her name (“Stella”) and help herself to the car with the support of Bloom and the supervision of his mom, who meets them at the edge of the park.

When asked what happens, Bloom flounders for answers. “Magic.” He ends up saying.

“Magic?” His mother asks, sceptical.

“Magic.” He confirms. He tries to subtly reach for the first aid kit that lies underneath the chair, without his mom noticing, but she does, because she is his mom.

“I thought you said you weren’t injured?”

“I said I was ok, totally different.” He says, then adds: “I also hadn’t really noticed, it’s just some claw marks.”

“Claw marks?”

“Some sort of imp? It was.. a lot. Like a lot, and I’m still processing and not quite sure it’s real, but maybe Stella can tell us if I’ve hit my head.” He continues disinfecting the wound, then wraps a bandage around it.

“Even if it wasn’t magic, I’m still very proud of you Bloom.” His mother tells him. “Not everyone would have run in to save someone.”

“Thanks, mom.” He means it.

-

It’s later and Stella is lying on the couch, and Bloom explains for the third time what happened his dad seems at a loss for words.

“Magic? Fairies? Ogres? Imps?!” He’s pacing around the room, and Stella stirs a little when he gets louder. “Bloom, that sounds ridiculous, you know that, right?”

“I do.” He honestly replies. “I don’t quite believe it myself, but it doesn’t feel like a concussion. Also-” He adds. “They were ‘Ghoulies’.” Making quotation marks around the word. “Not Imps.”

“I think it’s a stupid name.” Stella says, and all eyes turn to her. “It makes them sound cute, they’re not cute, they’re evil little ugly things.”

“Are you alright?” Bloom’s mother is by the girls side in an instant. “Do we need to call someone? What happened, we know what Bloom told us, but he might have a concussion.”

“He’s right, magic is real and he really helped me out back there, I was surrounded and overwhelmed, and he managed to save me, and get my scepter back.” Stella explains. “He’s my hero.” 

It’s quiet for a time again, and then Bloom’s dad sighs loudly and reaches for the phone in his pocket. “I’m calling the hospital.” He starts dialing, but with a point of stella’s finger and some sparkles, he’s holding a banana instead. “Wha-”

Bloom watches his dad blink a few times, as if expecting it to return to normal, when it doesn’t, he places the banana down, and rubs his temples. “So.” He says. “Magic.”

“Yes, magic.” Stella replies. “I’m the princess of Solaria, and I go to a school for fairies in the realm of Magix.”

When Stella gets up from the couch, making big gestures with her hands, and twirling around, Bloom sees his dad out of the corner of his eye.

“Magic.” He mutters, sitting down, holding his head in his hands. His mother seems to have this covered, and motions for him to take Stella upstairs.

Stella follows Bloom, still talking. And Bloom listens to the stories of fairies. “Magix sounds really cool.

“It is! You should come sometime, oh! I bet you’d even make an excellent Specialist -There these guys with Phantoblades, they’re like knights-, I could even pull a few strings for you to get you in, as a thank you for saving me.”

“That really isn’t necce-” Stella continues on like she didn’t hear him. “Oh? This is your room? I expected it to be more.. darker, and dungeon-y.”

Bloom snorts. “I like bright colours.” He says, motioning around his room. “Just not wearing them.”

“You draw?” Stella asks, looking over Blooms desk, which is covered in pencils and papers, mostly unfinished sketches.

“Oh, yeah!” Bloom says, and his voice breaks a little, but not enough for Stella to point it out, or maybe she is too polite. “I was actually working on something when we heard you.” He reaches into his backpack.

“We?” Stella asks, and, instead of answering, Bloom opens his jacket, and from inside a custom pocket, Kiko peaks his head. Stella coos.

“You have a rabbit? He’s so cute! What’s his name?”

“Stella, meet Kiko. Kiko, meet Stella.” Stella sits with Kiko in her lap, petting him as she browses Bloom’s sketchbook. It’s not something he has been able to show a lot of people, not without them making fun of him. “Wow! Your dragons look exactly like the dragons of legends, and your fairies look so cute! You must be quite popular with skills like these.”

Bloom doesn’t respond. “You’ve stopped smiling.” Stella points out, and Bloom hadn’t even noticed he had been smiling.

“People aren’t very fond of me.” He settles on explaining. Stella looks insulted at the implication. 

“I’ve got a call to make.” Stella says, and a crash sounds from downstairs. “Go on, I’ll be right there.”

Bloom picks up a bat from underneath his bed and he rushes downstairs, with no regards for noise. He spots both the ogre and another creature, as well as the Ghoulies. The first Ghoulie rushes towards him and he swings, making it vanish in a rain of sparkles. “Alright ogre. Batter the fuck up.”

“Bloom, language!” Both of his parents yell, from the corner of the room where they were previously cowering.

“Sorry!” Bloom shouts on instinct, and then brandishes his bat like a weapon, ready to attack the next monster that makes a move.

The Ghoulies seem to have learned their lesson, and cower behind the two bigger monsters, at least, until the ogre tells them to attack anyways. Bloom is about to be smashed into the wall by Big Blue Stupid when an energy blast hits it across the room. The ogre and Bloom look over, to find Stella, feet off the ground, hand outstretched, brandishing an orb of light. “Now, how about you get out of here. Bloom, would you mind opening the door for me?”

“With pleasure, Stella.” Bloom, in a display of dominance, rushes past both creatures, ducking expertly between them, as they’re too slow to reach out. He opens the door, and Stella sends them flying with a blast of her scepter.

“You take one and I take one?” He offers, when Stella stands in the doorframe next to him. He’s smiling again, closer to a grin.

“I’ll take the troll, you take the ogre?” Stella says, and Bloom nods. The feeling of fighting side by side with someone is something he hasn’t felt in before, and Bloom thrives in it. When he loses his balance, Stella covers him, when Stella gets her scepter knocked out of her hands, he throws it back to her. It feels like they’ve known each other for longer than a day, like it’s been months, maybe years.

It all comes to a head when the ogre gets his hands on Bloom’s bat, and snaps it half, throwing it out of reach, and Stella loses the grip on her scepter and falls backwards, trying to shuffle out of reach of the troll. Stella is looking around for someone, something, and her eyes land on something, but Bloom can’t see, because the burst of rage and adrenaline and pure energy rushes through him.

“Get away from her!” And he pushes the energy out, on instinct. The troll surges away from Stella, across the pavement, the red magic, like fire, still lingering in the air, before it vanishes in wisps.

“Wha-” Bloom looks at Stella with confusion, and she stares back. When they recover, the ogre is gone, and a man walks up to the troll. “Professor Cordatora!”

“Stella of Solaria, Bloom of Earth.” He greets, putting cuffs on the troll, who is soon surrounded by yellow electric bonds, floating a little above the ground, still unconscious. “I came here to see if you would be worthy to attend the Red Fountain School of Specialists.” As he talks, Bloom moves over to offer Stella a hand up.

“I told you I had to call someone.” She says.

“I do think you would belong better at another school.” He says. “The Specialists don’t have fairy magic, and that was most definitely fairy magic.”

Bloom looks between Cordatora and Stella. “I have magic?” Because knowing magic is real, and having magic are two very different things.

Cortadora smiles reassuringly. “If you want to, I could make some calls and get you into Alfea.”

“That’s where I go!” Stella says excitedly. “We’d be classmates!”

“That’d be amazing!” Bloom manages to get out. “A magic school…”

“Not to interrupt-” Mike and Vanessa make their way out of the house, which is not as damaged as one might expect. “But a magic school, are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” He says. “A new start, dad, mom.”

“And people will love him!” Stella adds, wrapping an arm around his shoulder.

“I don’t know…” Bloom’s dad still seems unsure, but that’s fair, wrapping your head around magic for someone who was not a fan of fantasy might take a while.

“Mike… just look at him.” And, while Bloom is too busy to notice, laughing with Stella, as she talks about Alfea, and Bloom asks question after question. “I haven’t seen him this happy in years.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Increased anger is a side effect of T and Bloom was already hotheaded-


	2. Welcome To The Realm Of Magix

When Princess Stella of Solaria walks into Alfea, dragging along a figure wearing mostly black, quickly telling Griselda “We have an appointment with Faragonda.” And being allowed to walk past no problem, people begin talking.

The gossip is plenty but the truth is stranger. “Will you be fine in there alone?” Stella asks.

“I got past the barrier, didn’t I?” Bloom fakes confidence. “So I must be some type of magic.”  
  
“Alright, you got this.” Stella crushes him in a hug, and then, for good measure, ruffles his hair. Bloom knocks.  
  
“Come in.” The woman on the other end says, and Stella gives him two thumbs up, seemingly just as nervous as he is.  
  
“Hello, Bloom.”  
  
“Hello, Headmistress Faragonda.” It’s one thing to meet a fairy his own age, it’s another to meet an adult fairy, and in a school setting, that is. Faragonda strikes him as lenient, and he doesn’t yet know if that’s a good or bad thing.  
  
“You must understand, we rarely take on new students this close to the start of the school year, but it has been very long since we had a male fairy.” And Bloom feels like a fraud, because if it’s a biological thing, does he really deserve to be here, is he taking a place away from someone who really deserves it?  
  
The headmistress can’t hear his internal monologue. “Thanks to the word of a highly respected colleague of mine, professor Cordatora, and your exceptional display of first magic, we would be glad to offer you a place here at Alfea.” It helps ease his mind, but not fully, and all he manages to get out is “Are you sure?”  
  
“Of course we are, dear.” Faragonda explains. “We’ll have to rush some of the paperwork, but you should be free to set up your room. As we had a last minute cancellation there is enough space for you, and, as Stella offered to take on a roommate so you can have your own room, you won’t have to share a room with girls.” Faragonda explains. Stella gave up a private room for him?  
  
“You’ll be in the same apartment as Stella, to make your transition here easier, if you have any questions, please come ask us. We weren’t even aware there were still fairies on Earth,”  
  
“Thank you so much!” He can unpack the “no more fairies on Earth” thing later.  
  
“Welcome to Alfea, Bloom. You’re dismissed.”  
  
It felt more like a formality, a check to see if he really had magic, and he does, otherwise he wouldn’t be here, and that realization still throws him off balance.  
  
The moment he’s face to face with Stella again, he blurts out “You gave up a private room for me?”

“I told her not to mention that!” Stella says. “Besides, what are friends for?”  
  
Bloom decides then and there, he’d die for Stella, more so than before, because she sacrificed her own comfort so he could go here, and that means a lot.  
  
“Pick your jaw up off the floor.” She laughs. “Our apartment is this way.”  
  
They’re being stared at in the halls, and they’re being pointed at, Bloom makes his form look bigger and more intimidating.  
  
“It’s alright, you know? They’re just a little confused, in a week it will be old news.” Stella says, easing his worries only a little, because what if they find out before that, what if they think he just pretended to be a guy to get into Alfea?  
  
“Welcome to our home for the rest of the year!” Stella says when she opens the door to the common room of their apartment, immediately drawing the attention of all its occupants, and sending Bloom out of the downwards spiral he was falling into.  
  
Three girls’ heads snap into their direction. “You’re the male fairy!” One of them says, and Bloom feels like crawling away in his hoodie and never coming out, but he doesn’t, instead, he makes his voice a little deeper. “Uh, yeah. I’m Bloom.” Stella looks at him weirdly, but he ignores it, continuing as if she didn’t. “This is Stella.”  
  
“Princess of Solaria.” She introduces herself, jokingly offended he didn’t add her title. It helps ease the tension in Bloom's shoulders, Stella drawing the attention to herself.

There are three girls in the room, not including Stella. The girl with pigtails, who earlier pinned him as the male fairy, “I observe that you arrived later than most other students.” The second girl points out. “I’m Tecna.”  
  
“I was a last minute applicant.” Bloom says. “Nice to meet you, Tecna.”  
  
“Hi, I’m Flora!” The third girl spits out. “It’s really nice to meet you both- I mean- I- Hi.” Flora fumbles nervously with the edges of her skirt, glancing between Bloom and Stella.  
  
Bloom tries to offer a reassuring smile. “Nice to meet you.”  
  
“Y- yeah.”

“Musa.” Pigtails says. “My name is Musa.”

“Anyways, now we’ve all met-'' Stella claps her hands together. “Who wants to go into the city? I have to show you gi- all around Magix!” Stella is an expert at diffusing awkward situations, Bloom notes. mostly by drawing attention to herself, but it works nonetheless. And while her slip up was noticeable, she easily corrected it the moment she noticed. So, of course Bloom will trust her on this.  
  
“Sure, how do we get there?” He asks, speaking again in his slightly deeper voice. He finally glances over the doors, finding his, barely peeking inside the room, and just placing his suitcase down.  
  
“Don’t you need to unpack all that?” Tecna asks.  
  
Bloom makes an offhanded motion. “I’ll do it later.”  
  
-  
  
There is a bus that runs from campus to the middle of the city, to Magix station.” Stella explains. “I used to ride it all the time last year.”  
  
They’re walking through the halls, and Bloom finds they all look the same. He’s mostly quiet, listening to the girls talk, he feels strangely out of place, in a different way than on Earth.  
  
Stella tries her best to include him in the conversation, but he shakes his head, just following along, until they make their way to the bus. 

“Everything here is so primitive!” Tecna remarks, tracing the chairs on the bus with her hand, Bloom looks over, because to him, it seems futuristic.  
  
“Really?” Bloom asks.  
  
“Of course, just look at its power source, or even the fact a person is piloting the bus, not a machine.” At Everyone’s confused stares, Tecna elaborates. “I’m from Zenith.” To the others it seems to explain things, to Bloom it doesn’t. He glances over at Stella.  
  
“Zenith is a world of technology, everything they do is far more advanced than most other worlds.” Stella explains.  
  
“Yeah, we know that.” Musa scoffs.  
  
“I didn’t.” Bloom says. “Until a few days ago I didn’t even know magic existed, or that there were other realms.” This seems to give everyone a pause.  
  
“You must have been very sheltered.” Tecna remarks. “Most realms run on magic, or it is at least part of the daily life. Not as much as in Magix, but still impossible to avoid, unless you are from Domino or another destroyed realm, but none of those have any fairies left.”  
  
Musa is the one who eventually asks the question. “Where exactly… are you from?”  
  
“I’m from Earth.” He says. “Faragonda did mention something about the fact she didn’t know there were any fairies left on Earth.”

“They were all wiped out in an attack by the ancestral witches.” Flora says. “There hasn’t been magic seen on Earth since then, no wonder they were so eager to admit you, an Earth fairy is even rarer than a male fairy, and somehow you’re both!”  
  
It manages to reassure Bloom a little, because if being a fairy is a chromosome thing, and it probably is, then the Earth thing probably makes up for it. Probably.  
  
“That means seeing the city is gonna be your first real look of Magix culture!” Flora realizes.  
  
“You’re right!” Stella says. “Bloom, cover your eyes- wait I’ll do it for you.”  
  
“Wha-” He can hear Musa chuckle.  
  
“Oh, this will be fun. If he was confused by the hoovering bus, imagine the rest.”  
  
“I feel like I should be afraid.” The girls keep talking, but they’re using vague terms, and Stella mentions a nice place to have dinner. Bloom just listens to them.  
  
Walking off the bus while having his eyes covered is an experience, and he almost trips several times, being guided only by one of the girls holding his hand.  
  
“Welcome-” Stella dramatically pauzes. “To Magix!”

Bloom was expecting more high fantasy, and less magitech, it’s almost a disappointment.  
  
“You’re really hard to read, you know?” Musa says.  
  
“Huh?” He eloquently says.  
  
“It’s really hard to know what you’re thinking.” She says. “You’ve got the whole mysterious angsty guy thing mostly down.”  
  
“Mostly?”  
  
“You’ve been smiling for nearly an hour now, you’re just a big softie.”  
  
Bloom chuckles. “I never said I wasn’t, it’s just weird to be liked by people.”  
  
“How do people not like you? You’re really nice!” Flora says.  
  
“That’s what I said! Stella says.  
  
“It appears Earth has different social norms than Magix.” Tecna states. “Or they know something we don’t.”  
  
“Maybe it’s both.” Bloom says, with a shrug. “You can decide to not like me later on.”  
  
It puts a damper on the conversation, but it isn’t the end of the world, because eventually it does pick back up. “If you think I’m a softie now, wait until you meet Kiko-”  
  
Inside a storefront, an ogre panics, he could either tell his mistresses he saw the Solarian princess again, as well as the male fairy, or he could let it go and not interact with the horrible child again yet.

He picks the second option.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My cartoon tumblr is dorkwingdad, come say hello!


	3. Alfea, Fair College

Technically, Bloom isn’t the only guy at Alfea. The others are teachers, and not fairies, but he still isn’t the only guy.  
  
Professor Wizgiz is the Metamorphosymbiosis professor, showing off his form changing skills and Bloom tries to appear cool and relaxed, but he’s dying to ask more questions. There is probably a library, he’ll just have to avoid telling people why he is so interested in Metamorphosymbiosis (and if that word isn’t a mouthful by itself, even thinking of it takes a long time, he hopes there won’t be a spelling test anytime soon).   
  
Bloom is being stared at in class a lot, and there is whispering. Mostly the teachers shut it down, but they can’t always do as such. 

The first day sucked.  
  
The second day is much better despite what Bloom first thinks.

“Oh, I’m not going.” Bloom is making alterations on Stella’s dress, when he admits he won’t be going to the welcome party. “I’m not one for parties, I was thinking of just going to the library.”   
  
“You don’t have a suit, do you?”   
  
“That too.” The other girls are in Flora’s room, Stella is only here because most of her stuff is still in her old room, now Bloom’s room. “I just don’t have the best experience with parties, especially not formal events.”

“We can help you, you will be the most handsome guy at the party, aside from my prince of course.”  
  
“Your prince? Ohhh, tell me more about him.”

“Well, he is the prince of Eraklyon and we’ve been exchanging letters and he’s just so charming and- wait a minute, you’re not allowed to change the subject!”  
  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Starshine.”   
  
“Oh, you so do, we have to get you a suit, since most Specialists will just show up in their uniform, which, honestly, feels a bit rude. We put all this work in our outfits and they just get to show up in their workout clothes.” Stella scoffs. “It’s an offense, is what it is.”   
  
“Stella, I don’t like the attention, and I will stand out.” He finishes making adjustments to Stella’s ‘cape’, which is more akin to a shawl, or a palla from ancient Rome. “I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to act around these guys.”   
  
“Come on, Bloom, no one will get used to you if you keep avoiding social functions, don’t think I haven’t noticed you skipping breakfast this morning.” Bloom takes a step back and Stella twirls. “Oh, I love it!”   
  
Stella’s dress mimics her fairy form in colouring, and is very similar to the clothing she wore when she crashed on Earth. Though, this one is much less practical and far more extra.   
  
“I’m glad you like it.” Stella takes him by the hand and drags him to Flora’s room. Stella knocks. “Can we come in?”   
  
“We’re all dressed, come in!” Flora says.   
  
The girls look absolutely stunning, and Bloom says as much. “You all look amazing.”   
  
“Enough with the compliments.” Stella claps her hands together twice to get the attention. “Even though everyone looks amazing -mostly me-, and I thought Tecna wasn’t a fan of festivities-”   
  
“It only makes sense to be appropriately dressed.” She interjects.   
  
“Anyways I need you all to convince Bloom to go to the party.”   
  
“What?” “You’re not going?” “Why?”   
  
“It’s not my scene, I don’t like the spotlight, and there will be so much attention on me.” Bloom tries to dismiss his friends, but they’re persistent.   
  
“The attention will never lessen if you do not show your face, it will probably only increase.” Tecna states.   
  
“That’s what I told him!” Stella agrees. “He doesn’t even have dress clothes.”   
  
“That means we have to shop!” Flora squeals.   
  
“We still have to convince him to go…”   
  
“Girls, I’m right here, and I’m feeling pretty objectified.” Bloom jokes. “I just don’t understand what the big deal is. So, I don’t want to go to some stupid party, what about it?”   
  
“It’s not just any party!” Flora says. “It’s the first party of the school year, where we all meet the Specialists and we dance with people!” She glances over to Blooms and Stella’s direction, trying, but failing to be subtle.   
  
“It is a very important event, why wouldn’t you go?” Tecna says. “It would be the ideal place for you to introduce yourself, and become more public. That way, the next event you can stay on the sidelines.”   
  
“Counterpoint: I can just not go to this event, or any event in the future.” Bloom says, with fierce determination.   
  
\-   
  
The determination does not last long in the face of four even more determined girls, that’s how Bloom finds himself back in the city of Magix, in a store looking for a suit. The issue is that they’re all very much over the top, with extra frills, capes, or they’re far too tight and would not hide his chest well.   
  
It had taken a while, but the girls had given up, and Bloom ended up telling them he would find something, somehow.   
  
It had taken a while, but he had found a more alternative store, one the girls probably would have looked very out of place in with their brightly coloured style, but he fit right in .There are plenty of witches in the area, as well as some more edgy wizards, but none seem to pay him any mind. He fits right in, it’s a weird feeling.

With faked confidence he walks to the male section, and nearly loses his mind at the amount of options. He picks out several shirts, and one pair of pants to go with them. It’s late in the day, but most of the changing booths are taken, so he waits and sits down next to a girl, on the only other available seat. He tries to ignore her staring. Eventually, he has had enough, deepening his voice, he asks: “Is there something on my face?”  
  
She doesn’t look taken aback, probably used to the rudeness. She shakes her head, a little strand of blue fake hair refusing to move with her actual red hair. It shimmers weirdly. “I haven’t seen you here before, are you new to Magix?”   
  
“Uh, yeah.” The girl doesn’t seem undermined by his anti-social behavior, insteal doubling her efforts. “I’m Mirta.”   
  
“Bloom.” Because it would be rude not to. “One of the stalls opens, and Mirta stands up, and begins talking with the girl. The new girl cringes into herself when she notices Bloom looking. There is something about the way she moves that is familiar to Bloom, and it clicks seconds later that that is how he moves, paranoid of everything, and fully aware of his posture.   
  
“I like it.” She tells Mirta. “But it doesn’t look good on me.”   
  
Mirta is quick to reassure her that it does look good on her, but Bloom looks it over. “Depends on if you are trying to blend in or stand out.” He says, and they both look over him. Fuck.  
  
“The green of the skirt is nearly the same shade as your hair.” He points out, pretending he isn't regreting speaking out loud. “It makes it very easy for you to blend into the background, if you want to stand out more I’d recommend red, if you want a nice inbetween you could go with a dark blue, just match the colour with your gloves to keep a theme.”

Both girls look at him in stunned silence.   
  
“Let’s try it.” The new girl says. “Uh, thanks.”   
  
“No problem.” Bloom looks over his own clothing selection. He doesn’t have anything to go over any of the blouses he picked, unless… “Do you girls know where I can find a fabric store in the area?”   
  
“Oh!” Mirta says. “It’s two blocks down from here, just look on your left.”   
  
Another booth opens up and Bloom waves to Mirta and her friend as he enters it. They wave back.   
  
When Bloom gets out to look in the full length mirror, he watches Mirta look at her friend with adoration and she twirls her skirt. “Get it, girl.” Bloom says, and they look at him. He chuckles. “Didn’t really want to interrupt, but I have to use the mirror. Time crunch, and all that. You look great by the way.”   
  
“You’re not too bad yourself. Going to a party?”   
  
“Unfortunately, my friends insist I go, so I might as well go in style.” The blouse is loose enough to cover the fact he is wearing a binder, and the washed out grey colouring makes it impossible to see it. The asymmetrical cut of the bottom makes his hips stand out less as well, all in all, it’s the perfect fit.   
  
The pants are simple, plain black with a few fashionable rips in them, they’d look even better with his combat boots underneath them, instead of socks.

“Roll up your sleeves.” Mirta’s friend says, and she picks something up from the accessoires rack. “I’m Lucy, by the way.” 

“Bloom.” Bloom complies and Lucy begins clasping a (faux?)leather cuff bracelet around his wrist.  
  
“I love your tattoo.” Mirta says, and Lucy looks over too. Bloom’s tattoo is a simple asian fashioned dragon, orange and red in colour, seeming to be more flames at first glance than an actual image. He used to draw it a lot, as he used to have a lot of dreams about it and he liked the imagery. It was his 16th birthday present.   
  
“Thank you, I designed it myself.” He’s been smiling more lately, who knew so many people could be kind?   
  
Lucy disappears in the stalls again, returning to her own clothes, picking out what she wants to keep, and the girls move to the till to pay.

“We’ll see you around, Bloom!”  
  
“See you girls!” It’s nice being liked.   
  
-

A quick trip to the fabric shop later to pick up some red fabric and a bus ride back to Alfea, he enters his room, throwing the bag on the bed. Using some spare paper he quickly draws out the pattern.   
  
The lack of scissors sucks, and while he can spend another hour looking for them, he does have magic powers. So, laying the fabric down on the floor, the pattern over it, he tries to focus. The energy is there, it just needs to go somewhere. He pushes it into his pointer finger, but not fully pushing it out. It’s like a lighter, but more focused, the place that forms on his finger. He kneels down and begins burning away.   
  
The edges of the ‘cuts’ end up darkened and burned, but Bloom finds he doesn’t mind, it looks nice, actually. The remainder of time is spent actually sewing the formal vest, realizing he forgot the buttons to close it, and just deciding to keep it open.   
  
The end result of his outfit is a semi formal, punk aesthetic kind of formal wear, with a hint of post apocalypse. It’s not perfect, but it has personality.   
  
There’s a knock on his door, at the exact moment Bloom lays his hand on the handle, so he opens it immediately. “That was qui-”   
  
The speaker, Stella pauzes. “Wow.”   
  
“Wow indeed!” Flora says.   
  
Musa grins with approval. “Looking nice, B.”   
  
“I am not going to pretend to understand, but I am glad you enjoy your outfit.” Tecna says. “However, we have bigger problems on our hands, which is why we came to get you.”   
  
“And how am I supposed to help?” Bloom asks, Flora and Musa each grab one of his hands, and their other hands grab onto someone else, eventually forming a closed circle with all of them.

“Some witches.” Stella explains. “They turned the gifts we were supposed to get from the Specialists into snakerat eggs. I overheard them talking when I was going to see where you were.”  
  
“Sounds cool.”   
  
“Ugh, boys.” Musa scoffs, and she wags her finger in Bloom’s face. “What she means is that we can turn it back, using a spell circle.”   
  
“Alright, let’s do it.”   
  
“Even if it means you won’t get a cool snakerat pet?”   
  
“The sacrifices I make for you girls.” He says, laughing.   
  
“Repeat after me:” Stella says. “What it once was, let it be again.”

-

Returning to the party is.. bad. The fact they left in the middle of it, and Bloom is showing up unfashionably late causes plenty of whispering. No one approaches them, until a Specialist with brown hair, holding an egg offers it to Stella. “Aw, Prince Sky, thank you.”   
  
Bloom doesn’t get the big deal, but he does grin, showing teeth, when the Prince looks his way. A warning. Don’t hurt her.   
  
The prince stops breathing for a second, recovering fast, not letting his fear show, and nods. In the background, Bloom watches Flora take the egg from Stella and cast a spell on it. He’s not going to question it.   
  
Splitting up, leaving Stella with Sky, Musa goes to DJ the party, and Tecna mentions something about finding a lost battery, and Bloom isn’t going to question it, even though he wants to. It leaves him with Flora, sitting by the edge of the party.   
  
“”What has you down, Wallflower?” People are still looking at them, but he finds it easier to ignore when looking at someone else, in this case, Flora. He follows her eyes to Stella and Sky, where Stella is twirling her hair coyly.   
  
“Jealous?” He asks, causing Flora to sputter and turn red.   
  
“A little.” She whispers. “Aren’t you? She’s your girlfriend after all.” Bloom chokes on thin air, eventually coughing and recovering, pausing the conversation until people stop looking at them. “Stella and I aren’t dating.” He says. “What gave you that idea?”   
  
“You two were getting ready together, and you’re just so close, she’s very affectionate with you and I just assumed-”   
  
“She’s like that with everyone, she’s like that with you guys as well, now-” He points in the direction of Stella and Sky. “Look at what she is like with Sky.”   
  
The two watch Stella listen to what Sky is saying, letting him lead the conversation. “I guess you’re right.”   
  
“Now, I’ve been here for 10 minutes, and I’m done with this party, so I’m going to leave.”   
“You’re just leaving me alone?” Flora says.   
  
“Well, when you put it like that-” Bloom awkwardly says. “I’m not much fun at parties, I don’t even know how to dance.”   
  
Flora gasps in surprise and takes him by the hand. “Just follow my lead, alright?”


	4. Interlude: Flora

“Flora!” Musa says. “You’re off tempo again.” Flora sighs frustrated and jumps off the balance beam, stumbling when she hits the floor, but not falling over. “Can we please take a break?”  
  
The thing about fairy magic is that it gets stronger when you’re in harmony, which is why on the first day, the chanting they did to revert the snakerat spell so easily took care of it. There had been only three witches according to Stella, and five of them. Unfortunately for Flora and Bloom, the best way to harmonize is to dance together, and while they did great on the dancefloor with just the two of them at the party, Flora is constantly losing her pace now she has to focus on being in sync with more people, and Bloom seems to have trouble letting loose, like how he did at the party (even then he had still been stiff, but not as much).   
  
“This fucking sucks.” Bloom interrupts Flora’s thoughts. He had refused to wear the leotards provided, even if they were one size fits all, so now he’s wearing grey sweatpants and a short sleeved shirt, light blue in colour, far lighter than most of his clothes and the brightest thing Flora has ever seen him wear, with text that says “Non-flammable? Challenge accepted”. 

He throws her a water bottle and she gratefully nods, before drinking half of it in one go.  
  
“Of course it does, I’m all gross and sweaty.” Stella complains, and Flora can’t resist the temptation to look over. Stella’s hair is sticking to her face, and her cheeks are red with exhaustion. It’s impossible for Stella not to be pretty, she reasons, and, if Flora’s face wasn’t already hot because of the exertion, it would be from just looking at Stella, pouting at Musa.

“Stella, all of us are suffering the same fate.” Tecna says, she’s sitting with her legs crossed, in a meditative pose, her hair is clinging to her forehead with sweat, and, unlike the other girls, it isn’t long enough to put it up, so it is very out of shape, with Tecna trying to put the stray stands back in place.

Musa laughs. “We should be complaining for putting up with your whining.”  
  
“Easy for you to say.” Flora says back, and she means it, because so far Musa has been keeping perfectly in rhythm, as well as being not tired at all, because she regularly exercises, unlike the rest of them, which includes Bloom, apparently, as he complained about exercising as well.

Speaking of Bloom, he is unusually quiet. He’s sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest, looking off into the distance. He’s been off all day, but Flora doesn’t want to pry. She figures it’s homesickness, or he’s feeling out of place, which she can’t blame him for, he’s been referred to as “the male fairy” by over a dozen students today, and he must have heard some of the rumors going around about him. People are saying such horrible things about them, that Flora knows aren’t true, because she knows him, but it seems to be taking a toll on him. If only there was a way he could feel more like he belongs, even just with them..  
  
“We need a name.” Flora says, and everyone looks at her. “We’re a team, right?”   
  
“A name would be beneficial for us to be quickly referenced to.” Tecna agrees. “Just ‘fairies’ won’t do for that.”

“It should help us get more in sync!” Musa adds on. “But it can’t be something cutesy.”  
  
“The fantastic five!” Stella’s first suggestion gets everyone (except Bloom, Flora notes) to shake their heads.   
  
“The airy fairies!” Stella’s second suggestion goes.   
  
“I just said nothing cutesy!” Musa argues, and Flora regrets bringing the name thing up, because she wanted more unity, not less of it.   
  
“Let’s consider out attributes and what we have in common.” Tecna says, and it hits Flora just how different they all are, of course some of them have things in common; Bloom and her compared flowers on earth to the ones in other realms, turns out, his mother is a florist, and Tecna understands it when Flora talks about chemistry, adding her own input... But things all five of them have? They come from different realms, they have different statuses and types of knowledge, which while it makes them a well covered group, it doesn’t really give them much to talk about. Flora vows to make an effort later.   
  
“We all have wings, right, in our fairy form, like these guys.” Musa says, motioning to some butterflies.   
  
“Can we just name ourselves Wings? Isn’t that a little basic?” Stella asks, and when Flora glances over to check on Bloom, she finds he’s been sketching with a stick in the soft ground.

“Winx, with an ‘x’.” Bloom says. “Like this.” While he isn’t loud, everyone hears him. Looking over his shoulder, Flora sees it, the little logo Bloom drew out in just a few seconds, the ‘x’ being butterfly wings. “It’s perfect.” She says.

“Winx Club! Winx Club!” Stella begins chanting, because of course it has to be some kind of club, and she’s getting up and pumping her fist in the air. “What? It can’t just be me chanting it, come on, we just said we are a team!”

Flora is also getting up, but not to chant, because the moment Stella chants again, she’s tackling Stella into a hug.  
  
It is a soft few moments, and her recently cooled face heats up again, and she’s relieved when the others join in. 

“Alright Winx.” Musa says, they’re still all huddled up. “You think we can do better now?”


	5. The Swamp

One of the main issues with the school being all girl students is that nearly all of the clothing they have is for girls, so now Bloom finds himself next to a variety of girls in matching uniforms, just like when they thought of the name Winx, only that time it had been a matter of not wanting to a skin tight outfit, now they simply don’t have any. 

This time he’s wearing cargo pants, with a ton of pockets filled with a variety of things, and his usual bomberjack has been replaced by a baggy sleeveless t-shirt. Bloom’s hands are in his pockets, and he had been slouching, but now the groups have split up, and he and the other Winx are walking through the swamp, trying to find their way out for professor Palladiums exercise.    
  
He pauzes. “I smell gas.” He says, and the girls look at him confused. “Not that kind, I mean the flammable kind.” His dad is a fireman, so it was one of the earlier things he learned when he asked about his dad’s job. That, and he has a tendency to really, really like fire.    
  
“I smell it too.” Flora says. “If one of us used magic here.. We’d have died.”   
  
“Or at least been horrifically injured.” Tecna adds.   
  
“So we just go around it?” Stella asks. “And maybe try to avoid any magic at all, because we don’t know what    
  
“Hold up- If one of us used magic here? Am I missing something?” It’s not the first time Bloom has been confused about something regarding magic, and it won’t be the last, but he has gotten a lot better at asking for help, instead of looking it up later, or figuring it out along the way by context clues. The girls have also stopped laughing at him for not knowing basic stuff. He still feels stupid, but he’s so very very grateful to them.   
  
“Oh! I know this one!” Stella has a tendency to be enthusiastic about explaining things she knows, because she doesn’t always understand things herself, and it helps her feel better about herself. “Magic, while it doesn’t harm others if you don’t want to harm them, is still a source of heat. It’s always hot and burning, but it doesn’t hurt unless you want to.”   
  
“It’s also why our fairy forms tend to have a lot of exposed skin, it makes it easier to get rid of the excess energy.” Flora adds on. “Which makes it easier for us to direct and control our magic.”   
  
“My form doesn’t need it.” Tecna says. “The gem on my chest, like Faragonda’s, helps channel the burned energy outwards through a concentrated spot.”

“Does your gem get hot during battle?” Musa asks.   
  
“I am unaware as I have not directly touched it while using magic, maybe you can help me research it.” Tecna says, probably not flirting, because this is Tecna, but Musa is burying her face in her hands, red faced.   
  
“Huh.” Bloom says, but while he tries to remain calm, internally he panics, because he had hoped his fairy form would let him keep loose clothing, unlike what he had seen. The idea of wearing a crop top, or god forbid, a mini-skirt has him nauseous. There’s no way anyone would still think he was a guy if that happened. He’d have to start all over and move back home, what if they think he lied-   
  
“You’ve been awfully quiet.” Flora is walking next to him now, where he has been trailing slightly behind the group. “Is something wrong?”   
  
“No, no, everything is fine.” Bloom lies. “I’m just processing.   
  
Flora looks confused. “Don’t worry, you don’t need to have learned how to transform to properly use magic, it just makes it easier.” Bloom offers her a weak smile.   
  
“I’ll be fine, I’m just overthinking it.” He hopes.   
  
Something, that Bloom barely recognizes as a Specialist aircraft, the ones that had been used for them to get to the party a few weeks earlier, is falling across the sky. “Look!” Stella points it out before he can.   
  
“They probably need help. Let’s go.” Bloom says, and he begins taking charge, walking in front of the girls.    
  
“Alright, let’s follow mister Hero Complex.” Stella says, suddenly trudging through the swamp faster than she had before, filled with sudden determination. The rest follows suit.   
  
“Are you guys ok?” Flora asks, when they’re within hearing distance. “That was quite a crash.”   
  
“Isn’t it rather obvious?” One guy asks, and Bloom immediately decides he doesn’t like him and is ready to throw down, so he sizes the guy up. They make eye contact. Bloom raises his eyebrow and the guy scoffs and looks away.   
  
“We’re alright.” Prince Sky says, and Bloom turns to find Stella wrapping her arms around him. “Thanks for checking up on us.”   
  
“Oh, let me introduce you!” She’s still clinging onto Sky’s arm, and points at every one of the Winx. “Meet Tecna and Musa! And you’ve already met Flora and Bloom at the party.”   
  
“Team, meet Prince Sky, his squire Brandon, Timmy and Riven!”   
  
“So.” The rude guy, Riven, says again. “Which one of you is Flora and which one is Bloom? They’re both girl names.”    
  
Bloom is about to make a snappy remark, but Flora speaks before him, stopping the fight before it gets physical, placing a comforting arm on Bloom’s shoulder. “I’m Flora, Bloom is the guy who beat up an ogre without a weapon.”   
  
Bloom waves, and grins. Timmy flinches back. Prince Sky awkwardly smiles back.    
  
“Sure.” Riven scoffs. “We all heard you beat a  _ troll _ with your fancy magic.”   
  
“Oh, you misunderstand.” And it’s the first time Bloom talks, and his voice feels like venom seeping out his mouth, hidden rage ready to flood him. “The ogre was before that.”

Riven growls, and Bloom narrows his eyes.

“Are you two done with your dick measuring contest?” And both their heads snap to Musa, and Bloom does a strange mix between a snort and choking on your own breath. “There’s an escaped troll.”   
  
“Do you mean this one?” And Bloom makes a vague motion to Riven, because how can he not do that, the joke was right there for the taking.   
  
“That’s. It.” And suddenly Bloom is tackled to the muddy swamp floor, barely having enough time to catch his breath before his head is underwater.    
  
The thing about being underwater, is that it’s so quiet, time seems to pass very slowly. He moves his head to the side, making sure Riven misses his punch, getting his hand stuck in the soft mud beneath the water.   
  
The fight is a lot more one-sided than Bloom expected, because obviously this guy is not used to fighting with his bare hands, and he underestimated Bloom, because Bloom shoots up, headbutting Riven in the face, shoving him backwards.

Bloom gets up and cracks his knuckles, narrowing his eyes, Riven wipes the blood from his face. They begin circling each other, and he can hear Stella flippantly say to let them sort it out themselves. “He needs this.” And Bloom has long since stopped thinking of how it is like he and Stella have known each other since forever.

Riven charges and Bloom counts down until he needs to dodge, leaving part of his leg behind when he finally does, making his enemy trip.

Most of his scruffs have been in back alleys and empty clearings, or the halls of school, now a muddy swamp, where your feet get sucked in the mud, and the water is too dark to see, and too shallow to hide in.

Stella is still talking, but he can’t hear what she’s saying. And he realizes what she meant by ‘he needs this’. It’s less of a need to prove himself, and more of the way he missed the adrenaline, and how it is to actually punch things (‘even if’ he thinks ‘Riven is build like a brick house’).

All too soon, their hands are interlocked in front of their faces, and they’re pushing against each other, and Bloom knows he’s at a disadvantage. He lacks the muscle needed to win a direct fight, and while Riven may not know how to fight with his hands as good as he is with a weapon, he still has had years of training Bloom hasn’t.   
  
Bloom tightens his grip and grins, and Riven visibly realizes something is about to happen, his eyes widening, but he can’t react quickly enough, because Bloom stops pushing back and steps partially aside, making Riven barrel forwards, full force, and, still holding onto Bloom, pulling him along with.

If it had been anyone else other than Riven, Bloom would have called this position homoerotic. He’s currently straddling Riven, slightly above his hips, hands still intertwined, and making prolonged eye contact, glaring at each other. The water here is less deep, more like a small puddle, and Riven’s face and hair are absolutely covered in mud, Bloom can see from his higher vantage point.

The Riven pushes him off in one swift motion, grumbles something, and gets up and walks away.

“Finish your assignment, we got this.” Prince Sky says.   


“Just shout if you need any help.” Stella says. “We’ll be there.”

-

The assignment goes smoothly, and the group is trading more stories with each other, Flora pointing and explaining every plant they see along the way, enjoying herself a lot as the Winx listen to her with varying degrees of attention. While it’s mostly the same few types of trees over and over again, Flora tends to make it interesting enough, by pointing out how the singular trees differ, she even picks some flowers from a bush, explaining it’s a well known potion ingredient.   
  
When she suddenly stops talking in the middle of her sentence, even those who weren’t paying attention look over. “Quietus Carnivoris.” Flora whispers, pointing at some vines, all of the same brown-reddish colour, wrapped around trees, hanging from branches, or creeping up from the water. “They react to a source of noise and then capture it to feed.”   
  
“That’s straight out of a horror movie.” Bloom says, and immediately the vines begin moving. They stop and slowly retreat, Bloom holding his breath and feeling his heart pound in his ears. “You have to whisper, and move quietly.” Bloom nods, afraid he’ll make himself too loud again.    
  
“Normally they don’t stop so easily.” Flora says. “They must have already captured something.”    
  
“Should we help?” Musa asks, still quiet. “If someone needed us they would have called out for-”   
  
“HELP!”   
  
“That’s Timmy.” Tecna hisses, just a bit too loud, because the plants stir, before settling down again.   
  
“We can’t just rush in there, the moving water makes noises.” Musa says. “We have to go slowly.”

Walking towards someone who is panicked and calling for help at this slow agonizing pace has something burning in Bloom’s heart, like how he didn’t even consider not helping Stella when she landed on Earth, but it’s agonizing, because while he knows it has been no more than 15 minutes, it feels like hours of having his heart burn.

Finally, finally they reach Timmy and the other Specialists. “Oh dear.” Flora says, and they listen to her explain. “The vines are most likely not going to let go of them until their heartbeat stops, now they have captured them.”   
  
“That’s not ideal.” Bloom says. “Can you.. talk to them?”   
  
“Yeah!” Riven yells, angry as Bloom has only known him to be, still with some traces of blood on his face. “Sure, talk to us, and make our suffering worse-”

Flora, however, seems to get which ‘them’ he meant, as she kneels down, and coos at the plants, telling them the danger is gone, they won’t be hurt, but can they please let these guys go?

With a splash all of them land into the muddy swamp water below, and most of them shoot Flora a grateful smile. “Thank you.” Prince Sky says.   
  
“We heard someone in trouble and we couldn’t just not help out.” Stella tells them, offering her crush a hand, to help him up.

Bloom and Flora, still walking close, offer the Specialists nearby a hand up (thankfully neither of them are Riven). “Thanks.” Brandon says, offering Bloom a polite smile, Bloom nods. “No problem.”

“We should stick together.” Brandon then says, taking charge, and Bloom doesn’t really feel like objecting. 

-

They do end up finding the troll, following the screams of some of the other Alfea students. “Get the cuffs on him!” Prince Sky shouts, and he raiders Timmy and Brandon to restrain the troll. They’re fighting and failing and Bloom doesn’t want to get in the way of them, but, when the troll gets away from the Specialists, he follows.

Bloom moves in pace with the troll, hiding his own footsteps behind the noise of the troll’s louder ones. There are people in the clearing where the troll is going, but they do not seem distressed, so Bloom hides behind a tree. While he is sure this means he won’t get spotted, this does mean he can’t see what is going on, and can only listen.

“-ion accomplished.” One says.   
  
“Now let's go back to Cloud Tower.” Two says, and then there is the unmistakable sound of magic, he can’t tell what kind, but by the sound of it, and the sudden silence that follows, they teleported away.

The clearing looks mostly empty, aside from a frozen patch of swamp water, which is definitely not naturally occurring. The sound of footsteps come from behind him, where he came from, and Bloom can see the rest of the group.    
  
“There is negative energy here.” Stella says, and despite what he just overheard, Bloom relaxes. “Someone cast a spell.”   
  
“They were from Cloud Tower.” Bloom offers as an answer. “I overheard them talking. They teleported away before I could see who they were.”   
  
“I wanna bet it’s those witches from the party!” Musa says. “They must have gotten rid of the troll to get rid of the evidence.”   


“If we interrogated it we could have tracked it back to them.” Brandon concludes. “So they made it vanish.”

“So what? We have no proof. We lost the charge of our first escort mission and we are not going to be sent on another one for forever because of how this one ended!” Riven shouts, followed by a grumble. “Let’s just get back to the ship.”

-

Bloom is sitting in detention, one of the rare instances of Professor Palladium actually giving one out, and it is not much different than detention back in Gardenia, he’s just drawing in his sketchbook. While he did get a good mark on the exercise, Palladium wasn’t very fond of him abandoning the group.

Bloom hadn’t even realized he had done so, going off on his own had just been so natural to him, he forgot he wasn’t alone anymore. Something in him eats at him, wondering if he can really consider them his friends if they don’t know so many of the things that make him up.

Flora waits for him outside the detention classroom. “Are you coming?” She asks. “The others should be saving us a seat.” And Bloom feels just a little like a liar for considering them his friends anyways.

**Author's Note:**

> -I call this the "Honorary-Bitchverse"
> 
> -Find me on dorkwingdad.tumblr.com


End file.
